The Trapper Creek Wilderness is a small (about 20,000 acres) wilderness area about 15 miles north of Carson on the Washington side of the Columbia River. It is completely within the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. It encompasses, not surprisingly, the Trapper Creek watershed, from a low point at about 1200 feet on the east side to various peaks that are just over 4000 feet. It has some of the best lowland temperate rainforest in the region.
This page contains pictures from a number of trips, and I will continue to add to it over the years as I visit the area again and again. One exception, Soda Peaks Lake, on the south side of the wilderness has it's own page.
First, a few pictures from April, 2007, just weeks after I had moved to the region from the east coast. I hiked on the trail that follows near Trapper Creek itself, but didn't get too far this trip. The first picture is of a makeshift bridge that only crosses part of Trapper Creek.
The next visit on this page was a quick backpacking trip to camp on the top of Observation Peak in September. There are four different trails to the summit, three of which all start near the bottom. I had already hiked those trails. For this trip, I drove the gravel road up behind the peak and hiked the short three mile route to the summit, and camped on it. The first photo is of the long afternoon shadows on the nearby forests, looking north.
Mt Adams to the east.
Mt St Helens to the west.
My tent with Mt St Helens behind.
Mt Hood to the south.
Now we have sunrise shots.
Berry Camp is a spot along the trail that can serve as a nice wilderness campsite.
Here is Berry Camp's water source, running even in September in a dry year. It's about 100 yards north down the trail from Berry Camp.
The winter of 2007/2008 was a very heavy one with lots of snow. In this trip on January 29, I skied in from the sno-park on the road just a bit up the trail, until I couldn't find it any more.we start with the road in to Government Mineral Springs.
This is the gravel road to the trailhead.
Trapper Creek.
The trailhead.
The junction where Trapper Creek and Dry Creek trails split.
As far as I could go, about 100 yards further.
It was snowing yet again back at the trailhead.
The Wind River.
